Hunters Could Have Feasts During Rabbit And Squirrel Season

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries field biologists predict that a banner year of rabbits and squirrels awaits when Virginia's small game hunting season opens Monday.

Monday will be one of the busiest days of the year for outdoorsmen. In addition to the rabbit, squirrel, and grouse season, also opening will be the fall turkey season, the third part of the snow goose season, and the tidal striped bass season.

A mild winter followed by favorable spring rain patterns created perfect nesting conditions for rabbits and squirrels. Grouse also benefited - grouse hunting in Virginia is allowed only in the counties west of Interstate 95.

Although field studies of turkeys have been conflicting, biologists agree it should be a good year. Turkeys usually nest in the late spring. This year, however, the warm weather of March and April results in early broods. That warm stretch was followed by a cold spell and then heavy rains in early June. So the late-spring broods were not as large.

Still, Bob Eriksen of the Game Commission's Wildlife Division considered it an excellent spring hatch. He said turkeys mature in "16-20 weeks. The young gobblers will weigh 10-11 pounds, the hens 7-9 pounds, by hunting season."

The bag limit on turkeys is one bird per day, three per license year. Two birds may be taken in the fall or spring.

There is no fall turkey season in James City, Mathews, and Southampton counties. The cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach also are closed.

Area rabbit hunting has been on the upswing for the past couple of seasons. Indications are this should be the best year in some time.

The rest of the state also is experiencing a bunny boom. Eriksen said portions of the state's southwestern counties show as much as a 74-percent increase in the rabbit population.

The bag limit on rabbits is six per day, 75 per license year.

Despite a gypsy moth infestation that hit the state's oak trees, resulting in a small acorn crop, the squirrel population is in a bumper year.